How much should you be earning to 'afford' to have a baby

[dogmum0]

As in, to have a baby and continue to live to a reasonable standard. We currently go on four or five holidays a year, enjoy nice things and spend a lot of money on things for the house, going out with our own close groups of friends etc...
I know this is all relative and everyone lives to their means but how much extra would a baby cost in the first year or so?

It is a how long is a piece of string question. Children can cost a little or a lot depending on how much you decide to spend. Breast feed and buy supermarkets clothes. Buy designer baby clothes and all the gadgets it will be expensive. The biggest cost is loss of earnings/childcare.

You may not be able to or want to go out lots and go on lots of holidays at first.

How long is a piece of string? It entirely depends on you and how much you want to spend.
You can go all out and buy expensive travel systems/nursery furniture etc brand new, or you can get everything from eBay/second hand.
You can formula feed at approx £15 a week or breast feed for free.
You can buy pampers or you can buy Aldi nappies.
The biggest ‘expense’ is either childcare fees or loss of earnings and that will depend on your maternity package and how long you take off work.
You cut your cloth!

X post with Jackshouse!

The main factors to take into account are housing costs, some people have large mortgages or will need to move to a larger property and then wether you plan on going back to work or not, can you afford childcare costs or to live on one salary? I think they are the biggest considerations.

As long as you can afford to house, feed and clothe everyone it's alright innit I guess. That's what I think anyway. We don't have much money at all but I'm pregnant with my second and we'll just make it work somehow.

After baby (with me working 2 days pee week) we will have around £75-80k pre tax income. (Outside London)

Would just about manager 3-4 holidays a year (we won’t though as we prefer to save).
We have a low mortgage though.

The lifestyle you’re describing would require at least £50k per year with middle ground outgoings I think

We cut our cloth accordingly.

First year relatively cheap with no childcare costs and just cost of baby purchases such as clothes, travel system etc. Cost depends on whether you will be second hand or brand new, so ranging from a couple of hundred to a few thousand.

Will you use disposable or towel nappies? Will you breastfeed or bottle feed? All different costs.

You have a different lifestyle to us so my answer won't be relevant to you. However with our first our household income was more than it is now which facilitated childcare costs. We now have 3 children and our household income is one third of what it was but with no childcare costs and a frugal but happy family life. We have one holiday a year but are happy with that.

I guess priorities would change and the money we are currently spending elsewhere we would want to spend on different things. We are both on comfortable salaries and not tight with money by any means, but I am a control freak and like to know I can afford things. Putting things on credit etc scares me.
We are both still young (27 and 28) and have been living in our home for over two years now. We have a fairly low mortgage as we were in a lucky position to put down a reasonable deposit.
I think waiting a year or two more to establish ourselves more in our careers would be sensible, just being inpatient maybe!

If you’re on a comfortable salary and don’t need to be careful with money why would you need to put anything on credit?
Babies themselves aren’t expensive. I assume if you’re on high salaries you have savings? We have a high household income and 3 children, I would say there’s no way we could afford 5/6 holidays a year but in reality it’s because we overpay our mortgage, I have a decent private pension (as I’m a SAHM), we overpay DH’s pension and pay into share schemes and investments.

Babies really aren't as expensive as people think, it's as they get older that you need to probably think more about the parenting choices you might make and how those might affect the cost.
I would say childcare is the biggest factor here, if you're planning on continuing to work, will you need full time childcare? And what would you want that to look like? A childminder is a vastly different cost to for example, a Montessori nursery.

Pregnancy costs - vary depending on what you do. Lots of NCT, pre nantal yoga etc classes.
Lots of expensive new shiny gadgets, designer clothes or decent second hand or less expensive supermarket style. Thousands on a state of the art travel system or a few hundreds?

1st year - how long maternity leave? What will they pay? Breast or formula? Again with the clothes and equipment costs. Childcare? Will you really want 5 holidays with a squawking newborn who doesn't have great heat tolerance?

2nd year - childcare, as above. Will you want to go anywhere too far with a toddler who hates sitting still, hates flying, prefers the family pool to relaxing in the Maldives?

Are your friends happy to socialise with chidk in tow? Especially if your breastfeeding they're not easy to leave behind.

My point is it isn't just about what you spend now because your life is likely to change so much you won't spend on what you used to.

Especially if you're thinking private school

Need decent place to live, sufficient income to keep the three of you and some prospects.

The money you spend on holidays, house and friends now would definitely cover the cost of a baby. But a baby is pretty incompatible with fancy holidays, lots of socialising and a swanky house. It depends if you're ready to swap one for the other, really!
You can pretend having a baby won't change your lifestyle much but give it a few months and you will be laughing at your former self. If I were you, I'd wait until a few other couples in your close set are also ready to take the plunge, then you will have company in choosing beige carpets, dull holidays and quiet nights in! Otherwise you can feel a bit frozen out and isolated, really.
If you choose to wait, make a bucket list of fun things to do before trying to conceive and also build up a bit of a nest egg to keep you in cappuccinos and nice things during mat leave.

I don't think it's so much what you earn, but what disposable income you have left.

From our main jobs, DP and I have a combined salary of £47.5k, but we have disposable income of £2k a month (£3k income, our household bills are £800 and we have a £200 budget for food). So we have enough disposable income to afford to feed another mouth, buy nappies and clothing, take another one on holiday with us.

We worked out we'd be able to afford childcare if we need it, but we're lucky in that our families are offering to care for baby so we may not need to pay out for childcare.

Your holidays are going to get significantly more expensive! When it was just DH and I then going away more than once a year was doable. Now we’ve got 3 kids it isn’t. Statement of the obvious, but what would have cost us £2000 before children now costs us £50000.

And my childcare bill is £1300 a month so I can’t afford to go anywhere anyway.

£5000, not £50000!

Yeah I agree with most the comments, I guess it's how you spend your money. I'm expecting my first in August and I'm s**tting it! I'm very excited as we planned our pregnancy but the whole money situation started creeping up in my head and I was thinking wether it was a good idea and if I'm going to be able to give this child everything it needs in life. I think it's best to stay with a positive view, you can do it! And no matter what problems creep up, you can work through it! My partner currently works 50 hours a week and makes waaaaay more than me as I'm on a 16 hour contract doing mostly 25-28 hours a week. We've struggled before in the past with money , once rent and bills was paid we would be left with not much. But we managed to start a savings account and month by month it started building up and we felt more secure if we ever were down on money a certain month we had some left to fall back on. We've also cut out on little things such as eating out to only once a week and being pregnant has also helped my pocket with spending money on weekends on alcohol and such. You'll get through it! Xx

Great info on here also getting pregnant can potentially take longer than anticipated

5/6 holidays a year with a baby sounds stressful, not relaxing.

We'll have £55k household income and I'm 28 weeks. I think we're really lucky.

Friends who have a single earner on minimum wage had a baby last year and he's doing great.

I don't know. babies don't cost much tbh.
Nappies cost I suppose, bf is free, raising them yourselves is free. Clothes are cheap as babies don't wear them out, so planty as new from Charity shops, or friends and family buying stuff.

I have 4dc and one on the way after a 9 year gap. I was married to the 4dc father and after 8 years he became violent so I left with nothing but the kids of course. Always worked and have a little home business too that supplements a couple of hundred a month. I also receive benefits so I can't really afford the ones I have, let alone this surprise, however i cut costs everywhere I can. Charity shops for clothes, buying item second hand from facebook or gumtree, meal planning, budgetting and saving for Christmases and birthdays. We usually manage one holiday a year, the sun caravan ones and go away camping when we can.

It's not an easy way to live but we have a lot compared to others and I try to remind myself of this when I can't afford something the kids want.

Before we decided to have children I did a budget. I costed all mat leave costs plus y1 baby items and I costed return to work costs. Imo those are the main things to think about it. You can over think it and plan further ahead but salaries increase, jobs change and so do circumstances. This is why people say they cut their cloth.

When I did the budget I also looked at what would happen if one of us lost our job. I realised that if DH lost his job I could carry us but not the other way around. I also had good sick pay but DH didn't get any. So we saved 3 months salary "just in case" and DH got some robust income protection. As it happened 6 months after I returned to work after DC1 was born, I was made redundant. I did however get a lump sum above statutory redundancy. My income has gone up and down since. When we had DC1 I was on £30k pa, now we have 3 DC and I am on £10k pa. Nothing is static.

Babies don’t have to cost much. They only cost a lot if you buy expensive clothing, bouncer chairs and other non essentials like the sleepyhead etc.

We have spent a lot on 11 week old DS because we are in a position to but we didn’t have to. It’s easy to have a baby on a tight budget. Breastfeeding is free for example and reusable nappies are great (we do both).

They become expensive when they’re at school.

The main cost are lost earnings/pension costs (including going part time for many people) and childcare costs primarily for 12 years (extended if you have a second or third child).

4 people going on holidays in term time is considerably more expensive than two, obviously.

Lots of incidental or desireable costs eg. Keeping a sporty child in footwear with growing feet (think wellies + dance shoes + football boots + school shoes + casual shoes + trainers x every 6 months!) can be expensive but you can get secondhand or cheap. Extra curriculars like drama or music lessons can be £15 a week each activity or more. State school ski trip can be 1000k plus but they don’t have to go.

Just remember, the people around you will likely be doing the same on a similar budget to you. It’s never going to feel affordable, but you sound like you are in a sensible position.